Can you set hand painted tiles in water? Some hand painted tiles are waterproof, but some are not. Mine are completely waterproof. So, they never come off. Everyone does it differently. Mine are fired to...
Mine are completely waterproof. So, they never come off. Everyone does it differently. Mine are fired to 1100° Celsius. Anyway, it is about ten times hotter than an ordinary oven temperature for cooking a cake. The glaze contains silica, which is the same that is in glass. The heat melts the silica, so that it forms a shiny glaze. It is like glass on top of the ceramic. That is what glazes the tile, and it is integral to the clay. It forms a bond and nothing will ever wash it off. It will not wear off. The only thing that can happen is if you drop it, the whole thing will break or chip. But yes, it would survive underwater forever. There are plates underwater on shipwrecks where the packing is still as good as the day they were bought. So, it is the same.
Usually, people doing hand painted tile murals such as the personalized things that I do, will be using a transfer, which is where you do the pictures. Then, they rub it onto the ceramics later. The paint will wear away within a few years with washing this way. Many artists also use something called on-glaze, which is a special paint, not a glaze. That is pushed over the tops of the tiles or plates once it has been fired. Once the white glaze is fired on, the paint is added on top. Then, they fire the ceramics again with less heat than I use. In this way the paint just scratches off or wears off with washing. So what I do is different in the fact that it is forever.
So, it can be in a shower enclosure. There is no way it is going to come off. The only thing that you cannot use my tile for is for outdoor use, because they are not frost-proof. So, if the temperature drops below freezing, the ceramic clay will contract. The glaze on top will not, but eventually it will crack. The tiles are fine with water, heat, or anything like that, but they do not like freezing temperatures. You cannot use my tiles for name plaques outside the house or something like that, which I quite often get asked - I say no.
